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Chucks build huge lead before edging Bisons

CLEARFIELD — The Punxsy junior-high wrestling team wasn't happy with the way its match against Clearfield ended, but the Chucks still picked up a huge victory over a squad it has lost to many times.

Behind five wins by fall, Punxsy built a 46-3 advantage, only to squeeze out a 52-44 victory last Wednesday in Clearfield.

"It was great to beat Clearfield finally," Punxsy head coach Bill Burke said. "We're certainly happy about that win, but I was a little disappointed with our finish."

With the Chucks (3-1) ahead 46-3, the Bisons earned three victories via forfeit, one by fall, one by technical fall and two by decision to create a 46-38 score.

That's when seventh-grader Kaleb Young (8-0) ended Clearfield's comeback possibilities with a fall over Jake Lancaster in 4:11.

"We knew they were getting 18 forfeit points, but I never expected to lose five out of the last six bouts," Burke said. "Kaleb came through big against a pretty decent kid to seal up our victory."

Punxsy scored the first 22 points of the match, starting with a 29-second pin from Matt Burke (6-2). Once Levi Campbell (2-3) had his hand raised thanks to a forfeit, Perry Arrington (7-1) provided the Chucks with four more team points when he registered a 9-0 major decision over Wyatt Stucke.

The Bisons were able to get on the scoreboard once Justin Grassmyer decisioned Jeff Bottenhorn (3-5) by an 8-2 score, but the Chucks racked up a handful of bonus points during the next four weight classes thanks to three wins by pin and one forfeit.

The first of those three pins came from Keegan Fischer (7-1), who bested Travis Ogden in 2:13. Travis Perry (4-3) then put Josh Kennedy's shoulders to the mat at 3:50.

A forfeit was earned by Austin Covatch (1-8) before Punxsy's next-to-last win came from Troy Peace (7-2), who pinned Nicholas Irvin in 82 seconds.

All three of Clearfield's forfeit wins sandwiched around Punxsy's Zoie Smith's (4-4) defeat at the hands of Hunter Blake.